1 . Generous billionaires are not hard to come by, but it is definitely a challenge to find a billionaire who spends all his fortune on charity just to end up broke. This is ______ what happened to “former” American billionaire Charles Feeney.

Feeney, who grew up in a poor neighborhood of New Jersey, is a ______ at finding business opportunities. Since childhood, he would take any job to make a few cents for his family-jobs like ______ umbrellas in summer and selling Christmas cards in winter. In his college years at Cornell University, he sold home-made sandwiches to other students and is still ______ there as the Sandwich Man. Then, in the 1960s, Feeney established airport retailer Duty Free Shoppers (DFS), which helped him reach his billionaire ______ by the 1980s. However, Feeney never felt ______ with the lifestyle of the wealthy. He lived ______ , and often thought of what to do with all the money he made.

Influenced by his own experience, Feeney decided to give away all his money to those in need in his lifetime. In 1984, the then 53-year-old Feeney ______ everything-his DFS shares and the various businesses and ______ he had acquired worldwide-to Atlantic Philanthropies, a charity ______ he established. In the following decades, Feeney donated through the organization more than $8 billion anonymously, to charities, universities, human rights   ______ , and foundations worldwide. Such incredible secret generosity ______ him the title “James Bond of Philanthropy” from Forbes magazine.

______ the idea of “Giving while Living”, Feeney is a ______ model for many famous billionaires today, including Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. He encourages people to donate at least half their fortunes before death. In September 2020, Feeney’s go-for-broke mission was ______ , and he now lives happily with his wife on a pension (养老金) in a modest apartment in San Francisco.

3 . People often drop into a gloomy life and are unable to get rid of the mood.

There once was a poor and discouraged salesman, _________ every day that there was no platform for him to display his ability and the fate was often pulling his legs.

On Christmas Eve, every family decorated their houses _________ lanterns. But he was alone sitting on a bench in a park and _________ the past. It was on the same day last year when he was also drinking his Christmas day away _________, without new clothes, new shoes, _________a new car and a new house.

“Damn! I have to spend this Christmas day with these old shoes again.” he _________ and began to _________ the old shoes. Suddenly, he found a young man in a wheelchair passing by him with his hands painfully pushing the _________ forward. It _________ him that he was so lucky to have shoes to wear while that man did not even have the __________. Afterwards, the salesman did everything with a calm mood and cherished every opportunity to __________ himself. He worked hard and tried his best to make progress every day. Several years later, he __________ changed his life totally and became a millionaire.

If you look all around, you will __________ there are so many people who were born disabled in the society but they are __________ in life and never complain about the unfair destiny. They are also not to beg others’ alms(施舍). __________, they constantly strive to make themselves stronger and more __________to serve the society. __________, we should feel ashamed. We are born __________, but we complain about our colleagues and — dissatisfied with our jobs.

Maybe all of us would feel afraid when we __________ we have fallen into such discouraging state of life, but worse is that you even do not realize you have fallen into such a __________ situation.

5 . More than 30,000 runners, selected from 160,000 applicants both in and out of China, took part in this year’s Beijing Marathon on Nov 3.

Wearing colorful T-shirts and posing for photos, they __ at Tian’anmen Square before taking their __ at the starting line.

Nearly a decade ago, Chinese marathon ___struggled to make full preparations. Now, at big __ like the Beijing Marathon, runners must win a lottery (彩票) to enter.

This is __ of the world’s running boom. For millions of runners around the world, the real reason they __ to pound the roads until their legs hurt is more than weight loss or fitness.

Chasing records like the three-hour __, for example, is important, but it’s not the reason people run mile after mile, up hills, in wind and rain, when they could just stay __ in their beds. Record times are __ the carrots they hang in front of themselves.

Last year, a runner in the United Kingdom __ with the goal of running a marathon in less than three hours. In the end, he __ in three hours and two minutes. However, he was __ afterward. “If I’d done it, that would be it,” he told the Guardian. “Now I’ve still got my___, I can try again next year.”

Although running is __ and requires effort, it also brings joy. __ children. When they are excited, they can^’t stop running back and forth, __.

Indeed, when we race through the streets of a city, splashing (踏过）through puddles (水洼), getting __ in the rain and ruffled (吹乱的）in the wind, we can __ that childish joy again. As Holden Caulfield, the main __ of the novel The catcher in the Rye (《麦田里的守望者》), said, “I don’t __ know what I was running for — I guess I just felt like it.”

6 . I woke up to rain loudly hitting my window. It was the most __ alarm I’ve had this school year. Weekends are my only chance to sleep in, but I couldn’t. My brain was __ and full of ideas, so I finally decided to get up and finish my English __ homework.

I drove to a nearby coffee shop and began my observation process, __ notes on what was happening. When I __ over at the parking lot, an elderly couple in a car caught my __. After parking in the handicapped space, an old woman __ on the passenger side and slowly walked over to help her __ husband out of the car. They entered the shop holding hands together.

Immediately they sat down at the table by me, another car __ in the parking lot, with all four windows rolled down. The __ driving it had turned their speakers up so high that I could __ their music inside the coffee shop. But they were not bad kids.

All of them were __ moving their hands and bodies to the __. They were so young and __, with easily-spread smiles.

A series of __ flied from my mind, ranging from photos with my family to the most recent dinner with my host dad. I could not stop __ people who have been by my side from my earliest memories. I watched raindrops slide down the window and __ with each other to form bigger drops of water.

__ to life in the real world, everyone is different, but whether friends or __, we are all still part of the same group: mankind. When having a conflict (冲突) or hold a stereotype (刻板印象) against a person or a group of people, we should take a step back, look __ and try to understand others before making a judgment.

7 . “Dad,” I say, “let’s take a trip. Fly and meet me!”

My father had just retired. He was _________ in his job, his thoughts, his life. While he woke up and took a warm shower, I screamed under a freezing waterfall in Peru. My father sees me drifting (游荡) _________, nothing to show for my 33 years but a passport full of funny _________. He wants me to _________, but I want him to find an adventure.

He agrees to travel with me and we meet four weeks later in Rapid City.

“What’s our first stop?” asks my father.

“What time is it?”

“Still don’t have a _________?”

An hour away is Mount Rushmore. As he stares up at the four Presidents carved in granite (花岗岩), “_________,” he says, “How was this done?”

The guide told us Gutzon Borglum _________14 years to the sculpture (雕像) and then left the final touches to his son. We stare up and I ask _________, “Would I ever devote my life to anything?”

No directions, no _________. I used to hear those words in my father’s __________. Now I hear them in my __________.

My father says, “I never __________ much with my father. We loved each other — but never said it. Whatever he could __________ me, he gave.”

That last __________ — it’s probably the same thing I’d say about my father. And what I’d want my child to say about me. I realize — maybe a __________ job won’t be as dull as I feared.

I tell my father I’ve decided to settle down, and I’m wearing a watch.

8 . My husband, our children and I have had wonderful camping experiences over the past ten years.

Some of our memories are ______, especially from the early years when our children were little. Once, we camped along Chalk Creek. I was worried that our 15-month-old boy would ______ the creek (小溪). I ______ a rope around his waist to keep him near to our spot. That ______ about ten minutes. He was uncomfortable, and his ______ let the whole campground know it. So instead of tying him up, I just kept a ______ eye on him. It worked — he didn’t ______ in the creek. My three-year-old, however, did.

Another time, we rented a ______ in Vallecito Lake. The sky was ______ when we headed off, but storms move in fast in the mountains, and this one quickly interrupted our ______ morning trip. The wind picked up and thunder rolled. My husband stopped fishing to start the ______. Nothing. He tried again. No luck. We were stuck in the middle of the ______with a dead motor. As we all sat there helplessly, a fisherman pulled up, ______ us a rope and towed (拖) us back. We were safe.

Now, every year when my husband pulls our camper out of the garage, we are filled with a ______ of excitement, wondering what camping fun and adventure we will ______ next.

9 . A week before Christmas, my grandmother passed away. My boss ________ gave me several days off to go home for the funeral (葬礼) in Nova Scotia. I planned to leave on the 20th so that I could get home ________ to help my mother with the preparations for both the funeral and a very ________ and busy Christmas.

Here, my string of bad luck began: my plan was ________ by a big storm, and I had to ________ a ferry ticket for the 22nd, the last day that the ferry would run. I left as the roads were still ________, and I was two-thirds of the way through the long drive when my car ________. I was so anxious that I almost ________. Just then a car stopped nearby. A lady came out and asked whether I was asking for ________. After hearing what I said, the lady took out her ________ and quickly helped me put on my tire at no charge! I was filled with ________. Thanks to her ________, I was able to catch the very last ferry.

The woman is a stranger, ________ she tried her best to help me get home. I’ll never ________ the kind stranger, who made a hard Christmas a lot easier, for both me and my family. I ________ the world is beautiful because there are lots of kind people in it.